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Has anyone here ever run or played in a campaign set in a Triassic, Jurassic, or Cretaceous time period before? If so, what sorts of races did you have to work with? What sorts of enemies, challenges, and adventures did you experience?
I'm just poking around for ideas at the moment, as my brother, father, and I were designing a pathfinder world with the game, Dawn of Worlds, and we decided to play the game in several phases to add a lot more depth to the world. We started off with somewhat of a strange setting, when the world was just formed. The myconids ruled the early landmass, and were the only prevailing race until Aboleths and Elder-things entered the scene. The Elder Things jumpstarted Reptilian Evolution, making the Xul'Gath (Troglodytes), while other insectoid races began to appear like the Formians. The Aboleths ended up making amphibious slave races, like the Skum and Sahaugin, and we've hit that age where the aberrations have begun fading into obscurity.
By now, we have two races of lizard folk who worship Kaiju like Mogaru, another offshoot destined to evolve into Saurians who migrated to our version of Australia (The continents have just started to break apart at this phase), a Serpent-folk empire, a Formian empire in the "Totally not America", and two competing nations of Xul'gath. One of which elicited the help of the elder things before their demise to use the blood of one of the Kaiju to engineer proto-dragons. The Sahaugin took advantage of their newfound freedom and
We're a bit lost on what other races we could make fit well, but rather than ask for advice, I'd rather seek inspiration through listening to stories and vicariously seeing how a game would be run in this time period so that I can come back with some good ideas and stories to add.
Yithians for sure, mi-go in the mountainous areas, and possibly even Spawn of Cthulhu. The Flying Polyps who warred with the Great Race of Yith should probably be hinted at. Anything Lovecraftian is going to be entirely appropriate. The advanced, decadent, alarmingly human-yet-inhuman inhabitants of K'nyan would be a nice touch. The Neothelids would still be waging their cannibalistic civil war deep underground, so their seugothi servitor spawn would probably exist although they may be uncommon. I see the various kinds of giants and giant-kin fitting into this kind of setting decently well if you want to include something at least a bit familiar. Qlippoth, Daemons, and Kytons make excellent eldritch horrors.
Good luck with your primeval setting, it sounds fantastic!
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Has anyone here ever run or played in a campaign set in a Triassic, Jurassic, or Cretaceous time period before? If so, what sorts of races did you have to work with? What sorts of enemies, challenges, and adventures did you experience?
We had a time travel adventure in a Freeport game that traveled back to a Serpentfolk-ruled era with dinosaurs and reptilian slave races from a time before they all split up (and some of them became aquatic / amphibious after the sinking of their ancient empire of Valossa). In this version, Lizardfolk, Sahuagin, Locathah and Troglodytes were all basically the same race (with Sahuagin and Locathah having survived the sinking of Valossa by turning to dark powers that made them able to survive the crushing lightless depths, and the Locathah later turning away from those dark powers and being considered 'traitors' by the Sahuagin, who, millennia later, don't remember exactly why they hate the Locathah, but still do). The Troglodytes similarly were pulled into the sway of dark forces in their underground realms, and diverged from the Lizardfolk above ground.
The plot, as I recall it, involved a drug known as serpentroot or something, that would cause the smokers to dream narcotic dreams of alien cities (the ancient past). A 'lucky' few would have some sort of psychic or mystical potential, and while 'looking back,' serpentfolk mystics could 'look forward' and see the modern day world (in which they were fallen and forgotten, which they found a great outrage!, leading them to attempting to use these drugged up pawns to restore their glory in the modern day, while also attempting to explore historical records through these pawns, who would wake up from their drugged stupor with a fascination with learning more about this 'wonderful paradise' they'd seen, and so end up learning more useful information about what led to the fall of Valossa, so that the next time they drugged up, the serpentfolk mystics in the past could raid their minds for this information).
The PCs had to travel into the past (using the drug and experimental magic) to kill the serpentfolk mystics who had been forewarned of the fall of their civilization, so that it would indeed 'fall' on schedule, and allow the rise of men, elves, dwarves, etc.
The Great Race of Yith was indeed somehow involved as well, but I don't remember exactly how.
Has anyone here ever run or played in a campaign set in a Triassic, Jurassic, or Cretaceous time period before? If so, what sorts of races did you have to work with? What sorts of enemies, challenges, and adventures did you experience?We had a time travel adventure in a Freeport game that traveled back to a Serpentfolk-ruled era with dinosaurs and reptilian slave races from a time before they all split up (and some of them became aquatic / amphibious after the sinking of their ancient empire of Valossa). In this version, Lizardfolk, Sahuagin, Locathah and Troglodytes were all basically the same race (with Sahuagin and Locathah having survived the sinking of Valossa by turning to dark powers that made them able to survive the crushing lightless depths, and the Locathah later turning away from those dark powers and being considered 'traitors' by the Sahuagin, who, millennia later, don't remember exactly why they hate the Locathah, but still do). The Troglodytes similarly were pulled into the sway of dark forces in their underground realms, and diverged from the Lizardfolk above ground.
The plot, as I recall it, involved a drug known as serpentroot or something, that would cause the smokers to dream narcotic dreams of alien cities (the ancient past). A 'lucky' few would have some sort of psychic or mystical potential, and while 'looking back,' serpentfolk mystics could 'look forward' and see the modern day world (in which they were fallen and forgotten, which they found a great outrage!, leading them to attempting to use these drugged up pawns to restore their glory in the modern day, while also attempting to explore historical records through these pawns, who would wake up from their drugged stupor with a fascination with learning more about this 'wonderful paradise' they'd seen, and so end up learning more useful information about what led to the fall of Valossa, so that the next time they drugged up, the serpentfolk mystics in the past could raid their minds for this...
That sounds like a great way to get a Hound of Tindalos on your trail.
Very interesting stuff. Yes, I hadn't thought about the Yithians or Locathahs yet. Most of the demons are probably going to come in later, as the forms of magic that are being used are rather primitive druidic and shamanic abilities, so conjuration isn't used quite often enough to bring outsider attention to the realm yet. The surviving Aboleths don't really want that sort of attention either, after their empire was more or less wrecked over night, thanks to Cthulhu. But we're starting to get there, with Serpent Folk beginning to unravel the underlying power of the universal forces in reality. (AKA, Arcane.) They already ended up trapping the first Blight, and are starting to experiment with it. And the Xul'Gath in the northern tribe have been modified by the Elder Things to have latent psychic ability awakened. (So they're just starting to explore spirit magic.)
Also, after the Kaiju ganged up on Cthulhu, managing to suppress it into slumber, the world has started to reclaim a future away from the aberrations, but Yithians shouldn't be too hard to fit in there.
Any ideas on what I should do with the Tarrasque? I've been playing with ideas like it being a Kaiju that is captured and experimented on by some race in order to be used as a weapon against the usurping gods at a later phase in the world's history. Or even the reverse of that, with the Tarrasque being kinda a reset button that the gods press when they wanna populate the world with beings more in their image.
The Tarrasque wouldn't be the godly reset button, mainly do to the fact it is kind of surpassed by other things... a surprising amount of the time. I'd save the godly wrath idea for Achaekek, or perhaps the Oliphant. The Tarrasque would probably serve best as another Kaiju to add into the mix, since it's thing really is that it's a giant rampaging beast.
Yeah, I was looking at the tarrasque and felt it needed some mythic tiers if it was going to be serving that purpose.
Lucky us there's plenty of Mythic monsters that serve the purpose better, and while not as wide-spread as the Tarrasque, serve the role well and are honestly unique in their own, powerful ways.
Behemoths were designed for that purpose.
I'd also add some Nagas too. I like Nagas.
I like Nagas as well. And they FIT the setting!
Sorry for the long URL, but my button isn't working and I can't remember the proper coding to shorten to just a title.
Anyway, you might find this book has some helpful hints. Though it contains humans (which you could drop for your campaign) the dinosaurs evolved intelligence far beyond the humans and even bio-engineered dinosaurs and other reptiles to suit their needs.
https://www.amazon.com/West-Eden-Harry-Harrison/dp/0743400135/ref=sr_1_1?ie =UTF8&qid=1525893098&sr=8-1&keywords=west+of+eden+harry+harriso n&dpID=51WTZD4TGBL&preST=_SY344_BO1,204,203,200_QL70_&dpSrc=src h
Nagas certainly are in the setting, but have no civilization as of yet. They likely will soon, considering they've started abducting serpentfolk to enslave (Who may end up as Nagaji or something). I kinda wanna push the serpentfolk out of the proto-asian area and into the proto-africa (Nomaria)
The next time we play will likely be tomorrow, and the races I have qued up from brainstorming so far are:
-Bog Striders
-Karkinoi (They existed before the Sahaugin, but haven't really started any civilizations yet.)
-Deep Ones (Perhaps as an offshoot of either skum, sahaugin, or marsh tribe lizardfolk)
-Locathah
-Yithians
-Flying Polyps
-Grippli
-Boggard
-Nagaji
-Stryx (A more Deinonychus-like version of them.)
-Ceratiodi
-Vodyanoi
-Real Dragons
-Dragonkin
And some contingency options in case one of the players decides to drop an early ice age on us, and mammals evolution ends up forced to accelerate:
-Sasquatch
-Tabaxi
-Rougarou
-Syrinx
I also kinda like the idea of adding Xill. But anyways, I'll keep you updated of what transpires tomorrow, and feel free to brainstorm your own settings. I like hearing your ideas and stories.
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Lucky us there's plenty of Mythic monsters that serve the purpose better, and while not as wide-spread as the Tarrasque, serve the role well and are honestly unique in their own, powerful ways.
Lavos?
Go the Greek route and have Cyclopian and Titanic civilizations.
Centaurs too.
Noticed how I said he was "Suppressed" and not killed or done away with. That doesn't mean Cthulhu isn't still playing an active role in shaping the world's destiny. There are a great many marshland lizardfolk who have fallen to his sway after he went into his first slumber. The reason why lizardfolk and serpantfolk are mostly resistant to him has more to do with their ties to the kaiju, who are kinda like simultaneously prototypes and gods to them. But the marshland lizardfolk don't have any kaiju in their region, and are close to the sea, so we're just getting to the emergence of the deep ones. Reh'leh exists as well, and it is empty, waiting to be filled. So you could say we haven't gotten to his civilization quite yet.
I also agree with you concerning the gods. We have a few lesser ones walking around, like a creepy, unsettling (and strangely benevolent) four armed avian god who dwells from civilization to civilization, teaching concepts that appear very similar to Erastil's faith, but for the most part, I do wanna stay away from the core pathfinder and D&D deities until we get to the end of the age we're in right now. In other words, the mythic age, when the gods decide "Hey, this is a cool world... Lets uh, set up base here and throw our own creations into the mix." (That's when the cyclopses, titans and centaurs come in.) But I'd rather make the setting strong enough to run as a campaign setting so we have more to build on in later cycles of the setting's history. Gotta add them rich answers which only raise more questions for the occult classes to play around with, you know?
Thanks for the Quippoth pointer. I'll look into them.
Quippoths? Those must be the strange, droll, curious, and eccentric Outsiders that excel in making clever taunting remarks on the spur of the moment . . . .